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- Title
CRANIA CANARIA 2.0: CONSTRUCTING A VIRTUAL SKULL COLLECTION.
- Authors
Serrano-Ramos, Alexia
- Abstract
"El Museo Canario" stores a large collection of aboriginal skulls that have been essential to study the origin and chronology of the Canary archipelago population since the 19th century. Regrettably, research has been dominated by biased and racial interpretations of both bioarchaeological and cultural evidence. When scientific racism and craniometric studies were rejected, studies of the Canarian indigenous skulls variability ceased without replies. However, digital technologies and virtual sciences allow us to improve research and re-evaluate old paradigms. This paper presents a digitalisation project aiming to construct a virtual database of the indigenous Canarian skulls, using a simple method of digitalisation that is very suitable to deal with large collections-The procedure, involving a portable 3D structured light scanner, has allowed us to digitally reproduce more than 400 skulls stored at "El Museo Canario". This work offers a wide variety of possibilities for archaeology and anthropology. The versatility of 3D digital models enables the generation of interactive documentation, as well as educational material for digital conservation and dissemination purposes. Moreover, 3D models are easily shared and can be displayed over diverse web-based repositories and online platforms and so, creating virtual online museums. We have created a profile in Sketchfab (https://sketchfab.com/craniacanaria2.0) where we intend to gradually upload the complete virtual collection of skulls. It must be emphasized that digital skulls can serve as research objects. This paper discusses the advantages of studying 3D objects in a computerised environment, which includes traditional anthropometric studies (linear measurements and angles) but also 3D geometric morphometric approaches. In fact, in future studies, we will apply 3D geometric morphometrics for reassessing skull variation of ancient Canarians going beyond old paradigms and taking into account the latest advances in archaeology, anthropology and genetics in Canarian research.
- Subjects
DIGITAL technology; SKULL; ARCHAEOLOGY; SCIENTIFIC racism; ETHNOARCHAEOLOGY; VIRTUAL museums; GEOMETRIC approach
- Publication
Virtual Archaeology Review, 2022, Vol 13, Issue 26, p76
- ISSN
1989-9947
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.4995/var.2022.16082